Mabil Ha Celebrates Permanent Water Supply

For years, families in Mabil Ha Village could not simply turn on a tap when they needed water. During the dry season, residents often depended on wells and other limited sources for drinking, cooking and bathing. But a new water system is expected to end that daily struggle and deliver a reliable supply directly to the community. News Five’s Shane Williams reports on what the long-awaited project means for residents.

 

Shane Williams, Reporting

For the families of Mabil Ha, running water once meant walking to a well and pumping it by hand. That daily struggle should now become a thing of the past. On Thursday, the rural Toledo community officially inaugurated a new one-point-three-million-dollar water system, giving residents a safe and dependable supply directly to their homes. The Belize Social Investment Fund implemented the project through the tenth cycle of the Caribbean Development Bank’s Basic Needs Trust Fund. Executive Director Carlos Tun says the system combines storage, groundwater production and renewable energy to keep the water flowing.

 

Carlos Tun, Executive Director, Social Investment Fund

“This project was implemented under the 10th cycle of the Caribbean Development Bank Basic Need Trust Fund (1:15) to the Belize Social Investment Fund at a total value of $1,302,175.14. The scope of works included construction of production well and reinforced concrete pump house to supply groundwater to the community. This system includes two 5,000 gallon storage tanks providing the necessary capacity to support the community water needs. Importantly, the investment also included installing a photovoltaic solar power system, which will provide a more reliable and sustainable power source of water and help ensure uninterrupted operation. A standby generator is also available to provide supplemental power when necessary.”

 

The project includes a production well, a reinforced concrete pump house and two five-thousand-gallon storage tanks. Solar panels will power the system, while a standby generator will provide backup electricity when needed. For Minister of Rural Transformation Oscar Requena, the inauguration ends a struggle he witnessed firsthand more than a decade ago. He remembers seeing schoolchildren pumping water from a nearby well, especially when drought tightened its grip on the village. But as residents celebrate, Requena says the community must now protect and carefully manage its new water supply.

 

Oscar Requena, Minister of Rural Transformation

“Most importantly, you know why you need to manage it properly? Because times have changed. It’s not like one time, you know, we used to have a lot of water all over. Now you have a lot, the sun is hotter, the water sources are running low, the creeks, even though it’s the rainy weather, they are low, and then the same thing happens to the water underground. The water is disappearing, it’s going, so not because you have water, you say, oh, I just turned on the pipe. No, no, we have to manage it properly, take care of it, and then our responsibility as a ministry was to ensure that we appoint a water board. So I want to thank Mr. Antonio Miss and the rest of the water board members who are here, the chairman and another representative from the council, for managing the water system. So now we have done our part. SIF has done its part. The Caribbean Development Bank and everybody else has done their part. Now you have to do your part, and that is why we appointed a water board who is going to manage the system.”

 

A newly appointed water board will oversee the system and help ensure the village uses and maintains it responsibly. For residents, the project delivers more than convenience. Reliable access to clean water can improve health, ease the burden on families and support the community’s future development. After years of pumping, carrying and rationing water, the people of Mabil Ha can now turn on their taps. Shane Williams for News Five.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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